Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the prime reason for the decline of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was inadequate investment in infrastructure expansion in recent years.

The other two reasons for BSNL slipping into the red, according to him, were high employee cost and poor perception of quality of service provided.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a fine of Rs 13 crore on Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for violation of the listing agreement with regard to disclosure of a financial metric. Sebi on Friday charged the company with violating section 41 of the listing agreement and section 21 of the Securities Contract Regulations Act (SCRA).

The violations date back to 2007-09, when RIL had issued 120 million warrants to entities in the promoter group on a preferential basis.

Priyanka Gandhi on Friday dismissed media speculation over her assuming an important post in the Congress as mere “conjecture” and “baseless rumours”.

In a rare impromptu statement, Priyanka noted how “at opportune moments” such conjecture was always raked up.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday released a discussion paper on higher disclosure standards pertaining to public offer and listing of securitised debt instruments (SDI). Sebi, in the paper, has highlighted the role and responsibilities of trustees of SDI. It has proposed a trustee needs to have a net worth of at least Rs 2 crore. The duty of calling for periodic reports from sellers and ensuring the investors of SDI have been allotted debt would lie with the trustee of SDI.

After witnessing decline in profit for six consecutive quarters, State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, reported 3.3 per cent net profit growth to Rs 3,349 crore for the quarter ended June, compared to Rs 3,241 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, said: “Pressure (on asset quality) appears to be subsiding. But we need to see a pick-up in the economy to see appreciable changes in asset quality.”

Weighed by a fall in the demand for utility vehicles (UV), Mumbai-based Mahindra & Mahindra posted six per cent dip in its stand-alone net profit to Rs 882 crore for the quarter ended June even as demand for passenger vehicles looked to pick pace again.

It beat street expectations which had pegged the net profit at Rs 833 crore for the quarter. During the quarter last year it had posted net profit of Rs 938 crore. The profit would have been higher, but for the Rs 67 crore (or 37 per cent) jump in the depreciation to Rs 248 crore. Stand-alone revenues were up two per cent year-on-year to Rs 10,096 crore in the quarter.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) on Friday said benefits of developing its Gujarat project through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) were being conveyed to investors by an MSIL team, led by Chairman R C Bhargava and Managing Director K Ayukawa.

Kotak Mahindra Capital and Axis Capital will facilitate the process to woo minority shareholders.

Mumbai: For the convenience of people to pay school fees and municipal taxes and utility bills through an integrated platform, the Reserve Bank on Thursday proposed setting up an “anytime anywhere” bill payment system.

Bill payment is a major component of the retail payment transactions as over 3,080 crore bills amounting to more than Rs6 trillion are generated each year in the top 20 cities in the country. Though various forms of payments are accepted, cash and cheque payments continue to be predominant, particularly at the Billers’ Own Collection Point.

Reliance Communications Ltd today said it has received the first instalment of Rs 650 crore from the promoter group for preferential allotment of 8.67 crore warrants aggregating Rs 1,300 crore.

The remaining Rs 650 crore will be received by the firm before March 31, 2015, RCom said in a statement.

It's been more than a month since Nirmala bought fresh tomatoes. A fourfold rise in prices since early June has made the essential ingredient in Indian curries and sauces a luxury she can no longer afford.

"Buying tomatoes feels like buying jewellery," says the 29-year-old maid, who is struggling to make ends meet on her monthly pay of $65 as prices for fresh staples such as onions and potatoes also soar in New Delhi.

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